The Looks of Love by Hal Rubenstein

Author:Hal Rubenstein
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-09-02T16:00:00+00:00

Maria Valentino/MCV Photo.

Maria Valentino/MCV Photo.

I’M SO INTO YOUR EARRINGS

The Legacy of Will & Grace, 1998

I serve on the board of Live Out Loud, an organization devoted to generating and sustaining harmonious environments for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. Each year, we award college scholarships to LGBT students whose unstoppable optimism and unnerving organizational skills have built bridges of understanding in their high schools and communities. Ten years ago, honorees either came alone or with a scholastic adviser. In 2014, each winner was surrounded by family—mom, dad, siblings, grandparents—all beaming at their special kid.

Prior to the ceremony, I asked our recipients whom they believed most responsible for the seismic turnaround in the public’s perception of gays and same-sex relationships. Names cited included Governor Andrew Cuomo, who spearheaded the passage of marriage-equality legislation in the key state of New York; Edie Windsor, whose domestic partnership case had forced the catalytic 2013 Supreme Court rulings; and the high-profile comings out of Ellen DeGeneres, Neil Patrick Harris, and Apple CEO Tim Cook. However, one silent student appeared bewildered and bemused by the choices of his fellow honorees. Noting his dissension, I asked his opinion, at which point he perked up with that knowing grin people flash when they’re confident everyone else has missed the obvious. “Will & Grace,” he said. “Will & Grace made all the difference. The two guys who thought up that show should get medals. Not just because they made me laugh, but because they saved lives.” Then the other honorees smiled back because they knew he was right.

Will & Grace’s heroes are the writing team of David Kohan and Max Mutchnick. Kohan is openly straight; Mutchnick, openly gay. “The foremost goal of any sitcom is laughter,” says Kohan. “But Will & Grace was also a romance, about two people who have an insurmountable object to their romantic love.” Director Sydney Pollack (Tootsie, The Way We Were, Out of Africa) once told me that when telling a tale of boy meets girl, “the narrative is essentially over once the boy and the girl kiss. So the story is only as good as what keeps them from kissing.” As obstacles go, not being physically turned on by the person you love most is hard to beat.

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